UNH men’s hockey enters stretch run

Friday

Feb 15, 2013 at 3:15 AM

By Al Pikeapike@fosters.com

DURHAM — University of New Hampshire goalie Casey DeSmith knew counterpart Jon Gillies was a keeper the first time he watched him play.

Now his Wildcat teammates are believers. Once teammates with Indiana of the United States Hockey League, DeSmith and Gillies opposed each other Wednesday night for the third time in less than a month with Gillies backstopping Providence to a 1-0 win.

“We asked the team to play hard,” coach Dick Umile said, “and the puck would bounce for us. They played hard, (but) it didn’t bounce.”

The freshman netminder, who made 37 saves, helped the Friars take five of a possible six points from UNH with two victories and a tie that left the Wildcats in a precarious position entering the Hockey East stretch run.

“The team played a good defensive game,” DeSmith said. “There were chances at both ends. To lose in the last three minutes, that’s going to hurt. I think we played well enough to win.”

Although the slumping Wildcats (16-8-3, 11-7-2 HE) are tied for second place with Merrimack, only four points separate first from fifth.

UNH next plays at No. 4 Boston College on Sunday (4 p.m.). By the time the Wildcats play the Eagles, however, the standings could look much different.

There are seven league games between tonight and Saturday night.

“We’re in a battle with a lot of teams now,” Umile said. “It’s not two or three teams, it’s five teams.” The Eagles (17-7-2, 12-6-1 HE) currently lead the pack by a point going into tonight’s game at Merrimack.

The fifth-ranked Wildcats are winless in their last three games (0-2-1), in which they’ve scored only four goals, and 2-4-1 in their last seven.

“Scoring is an issue,” Umile said, “no doubt about it. We’re struggling to score goals right now. We’re playing hard, but the puck’s not going in.”

UNH went 0 for 6 on the power play Wednesday night, including 0 for 3 in the third period.

“They were as aggressive on the penalty kill as we’ve seen,” Umile said. “They came at us. They blocked shots and didn’t give us time.”

DeSmith matched Gillies save for save until the Friars scored the game’s only goal with less than three minutes left in the third period.

“It keeps you in the game,” DeSmith said. “It’s easier to stay focused. It’s a lot of fun to battle against someone, especially a good friend of mine.”

That the game was still scoreless late in the third was due in large part to DeSmith, who stopped a penalty shot by Ross Mauermann late in the second.

“That was big for us going into the third period tied instead of down one,” said DeSmith, who made 33 saves on 34 shots. “It gives us some momentum and takes some away from them.”

But the Wildcats couldn’t capitalize, despite outshooting Providence 14-10 in the third period.

“After Casey made the save on the penalty shot,” Umile said, “I felt like were going to win the game.”

It was the Wildcats’ first shutout loss of the season. They skated to a scoreless tie with Northeastern early in the season.

UNH will be facing a BC squad that has won three straight and is coming off its fourth consecutive Beanpot championship with a 6-3 win over Northeastern.

The Wildcats split a home-and-home series with the Eagles on Jan. 11-12, losing at Conte Forum, 5-2, then prevailing the next night, 2-1, at the Whittemore Center.

“Down there we came out flat and they really took it to us,” DeSmith said. “Hopefully it will be a little bit of revenge time.”

Historically under coach Jerry York, BC has been a second-half team.

“This is when they like to get it going,” Umile said.

Now would be a good time for the Wildcats to get it going as well. Inconsistent for much of the second half, they’ve won back-to-back games only once since the Christmas break.

“If we continue to play the way we’re playing,” Umile said, “maybe we can get on a roll here at the end. The guys are competing hard, there’s no doubt about that.”

UNH is 5-6-1 the second half of the season. The Wildcats play a two-game series at Vermont on Feb. 22-23 before closing out the regular season with four consecutive home games against UMass and Maine.

“If we win most of our remaining games,” DeSmith said, “we’re going to give ourselves a good shot to be pretty high in the standings. It’s not really panic time.”